The killings were unimaginative and "kid-friendly" and I didn't like the time jump, it wasn't really necessary, takes away from the 80s vibe. But overall this sequel isn't so bad as it's rating. It is very entertaining, and has some memorable characters. Although the setting isn't a camp, the acting of many was very campy.

This takes place about 10 years after "The Final (right) Chapter" (which places it in the mid 1990s!). Tommy Jarvis (John Shepherd) is basically mentally disturbed and is being sent to an institution called Pinehurst. As soon as he arrives there people start getting murdered by Jason--but Jason was cremated after he was killed. Is it Tommy finally being driven crazy or is it somebody else?

This actually differs from the other sequels--it actually has a story! Also it has an astronomical body count--20! Most of them were cut down by the MPAA to get an R rating however. For those curious--14 men are killed and 6 women.

This has all the same problems as earlier movies and then some--there are continuity errors left and right; some truly terrible acting (Melanie Kinnaman as Pam was the worst); bad dialogue; Jason being able to seemingly teleport to magically appear wherever he wants; gratuitous female nudity; two extremely annoying hillbillies and characters so stupid you want them dead! But it has some good points--this is the first Friday the 13th to have black characters; it's never boring; there are very few character scenes (considering how bad they were in the past this is a very good thing) and there is actually some good acting from Shavar Ross, Jerry Pavlon and John Shepherd. The sequence where Shepherd single-handedly knocks the hillbilly cold is a highlight.

A lot of fans hate this--it's dismissed as "the film without Jason" and considered (along with part 3) as the worst of the series. I disagree. It's no masterpiece by any means but I was always entertained. I give it a 7.

Another year, another film. But wait - wasn't Part 4 the end of the franchise? Well, no, not while there was still money to be made in the sequels. So it's simply a case of "another year, another sequel" as a masked killer once again goes on the rampage to kill innocent victims. This instalment is particularly trite and silly, with an extremely loose plot, exceptionally unlikeable characters who deserve all they get, and a lack of creative murders. What made Part 3 particularly amusing was the reliance on bizarre deaths - take the eyeball-popping and the handstand slicing for example. Here, it's just a never-ending run of stabbings, slashings, hackings, and various other brutalisings, all of which have been butchered by the BBFC anyway. There's hardly any gore at all. A flare-in-the-mouth gag is the best this film has to offer.

When a movie kicks off with a cameo appearance by Corey Feldman who proves to be the best actor on screen then you know something has to be wrong. There's a natty dream sequence which sees Jason butcher two gravediggers but after that it all goes wrong. We're introduced to a mental institute in the woods, which is inhabited by normal teenagers like in the other movies - only a couple of them have any apparent psychological problems (one girl's miming to a dance tune is obviously the result of severe trauma - or just a by-product of '80s "coolness"!). It's a stock group of sex-mad couples, nerds, losers and bimbos. Surprisingly, the clichéd fat guy of the group gets hacked to death within minutes which makes a nice change.

The deaths are all portrayed unseriously, and in some instances it seems as if the film invites you to laugh at them! Aside from the prolonged stalk and slash ending (predictable),there is little real horror here. Just the familiar ingredients - topless girls, racism, drug-taking, decadent behaviour and bad language. John Shepherd is awful as Tommy Jarvis, wooden in the extreme and with a fixed expression. The two offensive backwoods "hicks" characters are the most obnoxious I've ever seen in a film - and even their respective beheading and machete-in-the-face deaths are too good for these repugnant reclusives.

Guaranteed to get up any fan's nose is the silly twist ending which has the murderer's identity revealed. A silly, incomprehensible conclusion to a forgettable film lacking almost entirely in positive aspects. Jason fans, give this entry a miss.